How do you create buzz for the second season of a show whose fanbase has pored over every frame of footage? Simple: You bring the show to life. To promote Severance Season 2, we placed the iconic Lumon Industries Macrodata Refinement office – and the show’s cast – inside a giant transparent glass cube… in the middle of Grand Central Terminal. As the cast performed mundane office tasks for three hours, superfans were rewarded with the ultimate fan service while the uninitiated were presented with a larger-than-life introduction to the show.

Just as Severance makes us question the boundaries between performance and reality, The Cube was designed to shock commuters out of their daily routine and remind them that they aren’t as far from the Severance universe as they may think. We placed the cast – in character – into a painstakingly recreated version of their eye-catching Lumon Industries office, and had them “work” for three hours. We knew that fans would relish a chance to get up close and personal with their favorite show, while more casual observers would be hooked by the spectacle of it all.

While Severance may feel like fiction, the reality is that many of us are living – or think about living – severed lives. What if we really could separate our work selves from our “outies?” And what better place to stage a Severance activation than one of the most iconic commute hubs in the world? We bet that the spectacle of the cast casually “working” in a recreation of their Lumon office would jar typically heads-down commuters out of their daily routine. And it did.

Knowing that eagle-eyed fans would obsess over every detail, we went to great lengths to ensure every inch of the activation felt authentic – from the Macrodata Refinement office furniture and desk props to the cast’s costumes, hair and makeup. Even the activation’s security guards were trained in Lumon-speak and stayed in character as they interacted with the crowd. We used every tool at our disposal to transport fans and passersby alike into the immersive world of Severance.

With 1.1Bn social impressions and 80,000 social mentions, The Cube was simply inescapable. Creators, fans, and fascinated passersby eagerly captured and shared the experience, driving a surge of organic content. A whopping 53,000 people experienced the Macrodata Refinement department recreation over three hours; most of them were too busy taking videos or messaging their friends to notice Executive Producer Ben Stiller snapping pics like a proud dad.

- A breakthrough marketing activation that seized the attention of social audiences, entertainment media, and busy commuters.
- 53,000 IRL visitors
- 3.5 Million Engagements
- “It wasn’t simply a fun event though. The gleeful online reaction to the Severance pop-up reveals something about our relationship to art today, as well as shining a light on the interaction between the internet and real life.” Forbes
- “…gauging from a metric of (online) public sentiment—does this endear us to the product being marketed, or make us want to boycott it?—the pop-up was a resounding success.” Time
- “Did this pop-up give me a tiny existential crisis? Maybe. Did it make me more excited for Severance Season 2? Most definitely.” Mashable
- “As onlookers gawked, took pictures and videos of the stunt, much could be said of the meta recreation and the series’ commentary on surveillance, the nature of work and the interplay of the two in the modern world.” Deadline